The present invention relates to a flower or plant pot assembly and method employing the same for keeping one or several plants temporarily alive in soil. More particular, it relates to such a flower pot assembly used during transport and for display of potted flowers or plants while they are put on sale, and which includes a pot filled with soil in which the plant is potted.
Plants, of course, need water in order to stay alive, look good, and remain healthy. Plants which are maintained in an open air environment especially need to be frequently watered. The watering of plants during transport and even while they are put on display for sale in, e.g., a flower shop is difficult or even impossible. Also, after a long transport, plants often look wilted or even may have died.
In order to prevent the soil from drying out too much, the plants are conveyed in pots. Typically, they are already cultivated in pots and these pots are consequently used during transport. At the end user""s, the plants can be kept in these pots for a while.
Various techniques have been proposed to keep potted plants alive for a certain period of time without the need to water them. A much applied technique involves mixing the soil in which the plants are put with a product which can very efficiently absorb liquid, i.e., water, and can gradually release or give off the liquid, i.e., water, to the roots of a plant as this plant requires water.
A very serious disadvantage of this technique is that the potted plants usually stand at the nursery or distributor for a certain time before being shipped to the customer, very often standing in the open air. Under these circumstances, the required amount of water needed for the xe2x80x9cmixturexe2x80x9d, which consists of soil and the water absorbing and slow-releasing product in which the plant is put, is entirely different under wet and dry weather conditions.
Another disadvantage of the above-mentioned technique is that this product is relatively expensive and a large amount of it is required in order to obtain a mixture which provides the desired moisture absorption and slow moisture release.
Another technique to temporarily provide a plant with the necessary water without having to water it is described in German published patent application no. DE-A-2.925.150. This patent discloses a container or other vessel which is impermeable to water in which is received a water permeable pot containing the plant. Clay grains, in particular expanded clay grains, which serve to absorb water and release it gradually are provided between the pot and the container.
However, water-absorbing power of the clay grains is limited. Consequently the required volume of clay grains is very large, and usually even larger than the volume of soil in the pot. As a result, the container must be considerably larger than the pot with the plant, which is not only unaesthetic, but which also significantly increases the costs of transport per plant. Moreover, it undesirably requires greater display space when put on sale.
Furthermore, if this container-pot assembly falls over, the clay grains may fall out of the container. In order to prevent this, a lid must be placed on the container and the clay grains, which is time-consuming and expensive. It is also difficult to determine the required amount of water, so that water often remains on the bottom of the container, which is harmful to the plant roots. Consequently, this technique is only suitable for use by the consumer, and is not suitable for use during transport.
The use of water-absorbing polymers for keeping plants temporarily alive is also known in the prior art; see, e.g., xe2x80x9cPatent Abstracts of Japanxe2x80x9d Vol 13, No. 227 (C-600). However, these polymers are provided on the inside of the pot and they are only separated from the soil by means of a net. It is difficult to cultivate plants directly in such a pot with the polymer applied in this manner. Repotting the plant in such a pot immediately before transport is time-consuming, and increases the risk that the plant will die.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel flower pot assembly and method employing the same for keeping one or several plants in soil temporarily alive, which totally avoids the above-mentioned and other disadvantages.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide such an assembly and method, which eliminates the need to water the plants during transport and when placed on display and sale.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for packaging one or several plants, for transport and sale, especially when these plants are already potted in a soil-filled pot.
It is a further object of this invention to package one or several plants in a pot in an economical manner and without significantly increasing the costs of transportation or making it difficult to put the plants on display for sale, such that, during transport and display for sale, the plants are kept alive and remain fresh without having to water them.
These and other related objects are achieved according to the invention by the provision of flower or plant pot assembly for keeping one or several plants temporarily alive without having to water them. The assembly includes a water-permeable pot filled with the required amount of soil in which one or more plants are potted or stand, and a water impermeable-container or vessel in which the above-mentioned pot is received, so that a space is formed between the pot and the container. The space between the pot and the container is at least partially filled with a gel formed of a water-absorbing polymer and water. In proportion to the amount of water, the gel takes up relatively little space. The plant placed in the soil in the water permeable pot can take up water from the gel for a long period of time, so that watering this plant is not immediately necessary. The pot and the container, together with the gel, form a package for the plant and soil which, especially during transport and when put on display for sale, maintains the plant very well without it having to be watered.
One advantage of this assembly is that the containers and the water-absorbing polymer may be provided before the plants are shipped to the customer, and one can estimate precisely or predetermine the effective amount of water which should be added to or poured on the polymer to effect proper watering of the plant during transport and display. Another advantage is that the required amount of polymer is five times less than in case the polymer is directly mixed with the soil as in certain prior art techniques.
According to the invention, the pot may be permeable to water because it is porous, e.g., it could be made of burnt clay, or because it is provided with openings, in which case it may be made of plastic. Water-absorbing polymers are suitable for the gel which are capable of absorbing 30 to 700 times their own weight of distilled or de-ionized water.
Certain of the foregoing and related objects are also attained in accordance with the present invention by the employment of a method for keeping plants temporarily alive without watering them, by application and use made of the above-noted flower pot assembly. The method includes the step of putting a pot in which these plants are potted in soil in a somewhat larger container or receptacle, so that a space is created between the pot and the container. A gel is then formed of a water-absorbing polymer and water in the space between the pot and the container. This can be accomplished, on the one hand, by putting a quantity of the solid polymer in the container before or after the pot is placed in the container and by putting a quantity of water in the container or, on the other hand, by putting a suspension of the polymer in water in said container.
As a result, these potted plants may come already potted directly from the nursery where these plants were grown, i.e., in the xe2x80x9clastxe2x80x9d pots in which they were grown and cultivated at the nursery without the same needing to be re-potted. The pots may even be packaged in the above manner at the growers before their transport to the intended customers.
Preferably, a predetermined amount of water is used such that the polymer is practically saturated with water. Most, desirably, the amount of polymer and water are dosaged such that the gel reaches almost to the top edge of the pot.